The greatest influence on my life is not a person or an event. It is a place which I absolutely hated as soon as I was brought here. It is a place I now call home. I was fourteen years old when I first came to the Virginia Home for Boys and Girls. It was like being in jail, or at least I thought so. Before being brought to this awful place, I was a free spirit, throwing cans and bottles through the open windows of passing cars and showing my speed by running through the woods and hiding. Now I was expected to follow rules and take responsibility for my actions. No way was I going to settle for this kind of nonsense.
The home on campus I was going to live in had just been built. The other homes were old and worn out from all the young men who had gone through the doors before me. I hated it here and my start was rough. But, just as the old houses were torn down and rebuilt, so were my bad behaviors and my disrespectful mouth. As I watched new houses being built, I watched myself slowly change my old ways and grow into a respectful and awesome young man.
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Ciera King
Originally from Sicklerville, NJ, Ciera King, 15, is a junior at Milton Hershey School. She has been a “Milt” for 10 years, and before the first CORE Student Conference, had never heard of CORE. That all changed when Pastor Mike Wagner asked her to be a host leader for the conference. Ciera assisted in the student registration process, acted as a tour guide, answered any visitor questions, and hung out with students from other residential education programs across the country. “This was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done!” Ciera says, with a huge smile on her face. She made many new friends at the week-long event, fulfilling her goal of the experience.
Ciera came to MHS with her older sister, who is legally blind, and roomed with her almost every year until she graduated last year. She is excited about the freedom high school has to offer, and plans to continue playing softball this coming year.
CORE thanks Ciera and the rest of the MHS hosting team for a wonderful first student conference!
July 2006
Maya Aguilar and Kassim Mbwana
Who is Kassim Mbwana?
He often reminisces with great fondness about his own boarding school experience in his native Kenya. It is this personal connection with residential education that first sparked Kassim Mbwana’s interest in CORE in January 2006. A graduate student pursuing a Masters Degree in Public Policy at American University, Kassim is from the beautiful coast of Mombasa, Kenya; “A place where they like to think of themselves as a city, but after being in America, I know now it’s really just a town.”
Kassim has been living in the U.S. since 1998, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 2003. He found CORE while looking for internship opportunities that intersected his interests in research and statistical data, education, and public policy. CORE stood out because since age 6, Kassim has been attending boarding schools.
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Marshall Thompson
Success is an ambiguous concept. With no one universally prescribed way to measure it, success can mean a variety of different things to people. For some people, success means acquiring lots of money. Others would say it is all about leading a happy, fulfilled life. Marshall Thompson believes that success is all attributed to, and measured by, the goodness and generosity of the people you choose to surround yourself with. This may just seem like a humble opinion, but once you hear Marshall’s story, you will realize how truly remarkable it is.
A few months ago, I set out to gain some insight into the perspective of one of the many residential education success stories that I had heard so much about. To this end, it was suggested that I meet Marshall Thompson, an alumnus of the Virginia Home for Boys. After reading an article about him in a local paper, I decided to make the trip down to Richmond to meet him. I expected a good conversation, but did not anticipate that I would be so thoroughly impressed by Marshall’s insight and wisdom that seem well beyond his years- Marshall is only 22.
What I discovered in Marshall, is not only what I believe to be a model “success” story for a residential education program graduate, but also one of the most amazingly resilient and inspiring people I have ever met.
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Marion Saunders
Marion Saunders has been with Girard College for most of his life. Although only technically employed there for 25 years, Mr. Saunders’ connection with the school began long ago. Growing up in North Philadelphia during the ’60s, just blocks from the walled-in campus, he was familiar with the school and the students it served.
“I can remember as a small child being aware of Girard’s presence in North Philly. I remember the marches around the wall in the 60s, the people insisting on integration in the school.” Girard did integrate in 1967, and only eleven years later, after receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Social Relations from Carnegie-Mellon and serving a short stint in the military, Mr. Saunders took his first position with the school as Houseparent.
Over the course of the next 22 years, he rose through the ranks at Girard, from Senior Houseparent, to Supervising Senior Houseparent, to Director of Student Programs, and finally to Dean of Students in 1999. Living on-campus with his family, Saunders oversees the residential program for high-school students, chairs several committees, and deals with student relations in a range of capacities.
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Judge James Milliken
Judge James Milliken is an impressive force. The widely respected presiding Judge of the San Diego Juvenile Court and the innovator behind San Pasqual Academy, Judge Milliken is a man who has a clear vision of how best to care for abused and neglected children. Long frustrated by the instability of the foster care system and the profusion of psychological scars that it imposes on the more than half million kids in its care, Milliken decided to do something about it. After some research into residential education, he rallied support from both the public and private sectors in San Diego County and bought a property.
Two-years ago the San Pasqual Academy was born. A unique boarding school for 250 foster youth, San Pasqual not only offers the county an alternative to a flawed foster care system, but also offers its students a safe and beautiful environment in which to live, learn and grow into happy, productive adults.
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